Historical Reflections on National Reconciliation and the Political Process in Contemporary Algeria

Date and time: Monday, April 27, 2009, 4:00 – 6:00 p.m.
RSVP: Free and open to the public. RSVP’s appreciated at rsvp@maghrebcenter.org

Jim Le Sueur is what Raymond Aron called a “spectateur engagé,” or “committed observer,” investigating contemporary history through the window of the Algerian experience and the effects of contemporary events on Algeria’s intellectuals. He has authored several works, including Uncivil War: Intellectuals and Identity Politics during the Decolonization of Algeria and the soon to be published Between Terror and Democracy: Algeria since 1989. He edited The Decolonization Reader and the English translation of Mouloud Feraoun’s enduring classic, Journal, 1955-1962: Reflections on the French-Algerian War. He has been involved in numerous translation projects and has overseen the republication of many works, including Henri Alleg’s seminal victim account of torture by the French during the Battle of Algiers: The Question. He is editor of the France Overseas series at the University of Nebraska Press and currently making a documentary on Algerian exiles during the 1990s. Le Sueur is professor of history at the University of Nebraska and received his PhD in history from the University of Chicago.

The Maghreb Center is an independent, Washington DC based non-profit created to increase understanding of the Maghreb in the United States. In accomplishing its educational mission, the Center organizes Maghreb-related conferences, seminars, lectures, and roundtables and offers a series of publicly available publications. The Center sponsors numerous programs open to the public featuring U.S. and regional experts, development practitioners, foreign policy specialists, and representatives of Maghrebi governments and civil society.

This lecture is co-sponsored by the Georgetown Center for Contemporary Arab Studies.

The Maghreb Center speaker series has been made possible with the support of the Moroccan-American Cultural Center.